Knife in the Dark

Got my tattoo, and the pain's alright

The tattoo artist was a lovely young woman, who said she had been learning about tattoo art since she was 12, after her sudden interest in her father's work, she couldn't have been much older than us, but she promised she was as good as most professionals, and that her father would be back in soon, but until then, she could do some of us. I volunteered to go first, and sat down cautiously sat down, asking if there was any chance the ink poisoning me, which she laughed at and replied with the fact that hundreds people have been through here, and all of them were fine, as her father was a professional and trained well, using proper equipment.

I asked for a knife to go up the inside of my right forearm, inscribed with Jacob along the length, which made me feel even closer to the person I left behind. She agreed and started, drawing the blade exactly like how I had designed my knives, which was a bit scary, but I was willing to go along with it, until she asked it I wanted colour on it, such as red on the gem, which she had drawn at the end of the hilt, which scared me to the point I wanted to just sprint out of there and never come back, but I stayed, calmly replying with the fact that I would like if it was just in one colour, which she seemed fine with, and finishing off my tattoo just as her father walked in, who, instead of taking from her daughter, simply moved to the cubicle next to her and asking who was next.

I paid the girl and then moved to the back of the room, with the girl calling after me, asking me to keep a special cast on it, which apparently was unique to their practice, so I let her place a special case over the top of the image, and told me that I would still be able to do anything with that arm, I just needed to be mindful of the  case, and to remove it after two or three days. I thanked her and said goodbye to the rest of the group before jogging all the way back to the mansion, heading straight up stairs and smashing the hammer into the metal within seconds of entering the forge, smelting helped clear my head, which was very helpful in this sort of situation, as I was on the point of crying. I decided that I would finish all the knives, and then do the gemcraft, before realizing that I would need to reheat the knives to be able to properly fix the gemstones into place, so I started the slow and emotional process of making the knives to their entirety. I finished three before needing to sit down and calm down, I then continued, working as hard and as fast as I could, while still producing things to an outstanding quality. It was a race against time, both against the others and myself, but somehow I managed to finish it no more than five minutes before the other eight streamed through the door downstairs, to find me there, ready to hold any excess baggage, which there was a bit.

These guys proved to me for the umpteenth time how good friends they are to me, because somehow they had collaborated to give me my very own red diamond ring, which went well with a lot of my knives, I was so thrilled with it that I sprinted back upstairs and started planning a presents for each of them. which I then started working on until about 6:00, when Sling came up and said I was supposed to be cooking tonight. I apologized and left me projects in the forge, but before I left, I shut the metal blind on the door, locked the door with a key that I had found in the forge, and asked Sling to make sure no one enters the forge, as I have a surprise that I don't want it to be ruined. I then turned and ran downstairs, where it took me about twenty minutes to set up a roast, with a vegetarian roast also made up and placed into the oven, in case people didn't want to eat meat, but I added a giant amount of vegetables, because I was through with the lack of the greens we had been having for the past three nights.

I set an alarm on my phone for one minute before the roast was due to be completed, giving me one second to close up and run down 137 stairs, which wouldn't be an easy feat for normal people, but I wasn't by any means normal, so that was alright. I climbed back up the stairs as fast as I was able to, and re entered the forge, and worked for what seemed like a minute, until I was jolted back into reality by the alarm beep, just as the final hammer stroke came down, which was so coincidental I stood for two seconds, just staring at my work, before closing down and taking the stairs four at a time down to the kitchen, where I whipped the roasts and their vegetable companions out of the oven, and then took them and laid them in the centre of the dining table. I then went upstairs and grabbed my presents, then came down, setting the table, placing placards with people's names on them, and placing their corresponding presents on their seats. I then went and called dinner, and had everyone come down, and as they pulled out their chairs, they gasped when they saw their gifts.